OT: French/English etymology question: "sauf"/"save"

My Band-Aid box says that the bandages therein are sterile unless the
paper around them is damaged.  This handy-dandy bit of obviosity
is helpfully translated into French, and the equivalent of the English
"unless" is apparently "sauf si".  Since I know that "si" means "if",
I gather that "sauf" by itself means "except", and I was wondering if this were
related to the identical (somewhat outdated) meaning of English "save".
This is purely idle speculation on my part, and I have done no research;
I just thought someone here might already know the answer.

Thanks!

-Mark

Replies